Mario Marzi plays Jobim

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Mozart Strikes Back: after decades of melodies looted from the classical repertoire to use them for commercial hits or TV jingles, the situation has been reversed. It’s the turn of Antonio Carlos Jobim, the father of the bossa nova, to provide his timeless songs evocative of Bahia. With arrangements by Valter Sivilotti, they now become languid miniatures for sax, string quartet and percussions (not forgetting the accordion which appears here and there, played with his usual, hallmark flair by Simone Zanchini). Entitled East Travel (Stradivarius label), the album is by the Arkè String Quartet and sax player Mario Marzi. Impeccable, as bright as a ray of sun penetrating the intensity of the strings, the timbre and intonation of Marzi’s instrument will amaze sax fans.

There’s never been such a total control of the sax in jazz before; in fact Marzi is not a jazz player. If you want to hear his live performances, go to La Scala in Milan, where he’s the soloist of choice for the opera house’s various musical groups from the philharmonic to chamber ensembles.The result is music which is at once aristocratic, exotic and popular, which shouldn’t surprise us considering the new instrumental format created for Jobim’s music. Indeed, ethnic flavors are given special prominence, something never heard before in the numerous pop and jazz versions of this repertoire. Throwing the geographical perspective upside-down, the Brazilian rhythms and melodies take on Middle-Eastern tones, accentuated by the tablas, played mostly by Federico Sanesi and, on a few tracks, by the master of this instrument, Trilok Gurtu.